The Daily Startup: Goldman Sachs Places Bet on Professional Social Networks in Spiceworks Deal

Spiceworks, a social network for IT professionals, raised $57.6 million in funding led by Goldman Sachs Group as part of a growing interest in professional social networks. The company started out in 2006 as the “iTunes of network management,” enabling IT professionals to find and buy cloud services, but the site also added a social network, and that’s the service that grew fastest.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals Internationalhas agreed to pay up to $500 million to acquire PreCision Dermatology, a specialty-drug company that has grown quickly since its formation just more than three years ago. The sale will produce returns for PreCision investors, which include Boston Millennia Partners, Essex Woodlands, Frazier Healthcare, Longitude Capital, NovaQuest Capital Management and Quaker Partners.

Also in today’s VentureWire: Former Sequioa Capital Partners Mark Kvamme and Chris Olsen have closed a first fund for their new firm, Drive Capital, raising $250 million to invest in a blend of early- and growth-stage tech startups, especially in the Midwest…JMI Equity led a $38 million growth round in AtTask to help the software company expand beyond IT professionals…and investors are putting $16 million into mobile app analytics company Localytics, in a bet that companies will increasingly want to know more about their mobile customers.

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